Boom Goes the Dynamite!

And the Oscar Goes to...

by Eric Berkenpas

Photo cred www.stylisheve.com

Over the past couple years, Professional Soccer seems to have started impacting the NHL. How so? One word: diving. It has become so bad that refs have been told to start issuing penalties to players they deemed to have embellished a hit in order to get a call. Those of you who want to try to defend soccer and say there is no diving, please just come to the realization. It may not be as prevalent in the EPL, but when the World Cup and Euro come around, diving becomes a strategy adopted by may players and even some teams and it taints the great sport that is soccer.

Now, the NHL is beginning to experience this issue. While it has been present for awhile, it was never a very big deal as it happened very infrequently. This year, and especially recently, diving and embellishment has been hitting the headlines. This past Sunday night after Canadiens defeated the Bruins, Claude Julien, head coach of the Bruins, lashed out on the Canadiens and the amount of diving and embellishment they do on the ice. He had this to say. "It's frustrating because tonight, as everybody saw, there's a lot of embellishment. This is embarrassing for our game, the embellishing. And right now they've got over 100 power plays so far and it's pretty obvious why. We're trying to clean that out of our game, and its got to be done soon."

Photo cred www.zimbio.com

The specific incident that was the focal point of his rant was a hit by Shawn Thornton on P.K. Subban, who has a track record of being accused of diving. Thornton threw a hit on Subban along the boards and Subban appeared to launch himself into the boards and embellish the hit by falling dramatically to the ice. What was the result? Shawn Thornton gets assessed a major penalty giving the Canadiens a 5 minute powerplay when, as Julien would argue, the Bruins should have been awarded a 2 minute powerplay for the dive. Take whichever side you want because the dive is not as obvious when you watch the video as everyone is making it out to be, but there is a lot of truth to the outrage.

Take this hit for example. Same day, Buffalo Sabres are playing the NY Rangers. Rangers go on a powerplay and for some reason, Sabres coach Ron Rolston puts Patrick Kaleta, a goon, on the penalty kill. To no ones astonishment, Kaleta took the opportunity presented to him to crosscheck Brad Richard from behind into the boards head first. Watch for yourself:

                    

 Now I don't want to downplay how dangerous of a hit this is, but both players were not carrying much speed towards the boards and Richards did not make that bad of impact against the boards. After hitting the boards, Richards, as you can see, was writhing in pain as if he just got stabbed in the chest by a sword. What this video doesn't show is that after the refs get everything under control and get the game going again, Brad Richards jumps on the ice for the next shift as if nothing happened.

Photo cred ballsoutinpublic.wordpress.com

Obviously, this is not an easy penalty to call. When things happen as fast as they do in the NHL, it's hard for any ref to see what actually happened. There really is no easy fix to the problem other than urging refs to become more aware and watch more closely for the dives. What should not happen very often at all that is happening far too much is refs calling coincidental minors on these dives. If a player embellishes a clean hit to get a call, the dive is a penalty, the hit is not. If a player tries to draw a tripping penalty by diving, the dive is a penalty, there cannot be a trip. These coincidental minors are not going to give anyone incentive to stop diving because there is no real penalty to the team, only yourself. It's worth the shot to try to draw a penalty if the worst that will happen is a 4 on 4. Refs need to be more astute and take this stuff out of the game before it  becomes too prevalent and diminishes the greatness and quality of the game like it did with soccer.